A nation disintegrates Clothing, Culture, and Violence in the American Civil War Era

During the American Civil War, clothing became an essential component of the way war was fought and experienced its consequences. Through the clothes they made, wore, repaired, lost, and stolen, Americans expressed their loyalty, demonstrated their love, confronted their social and economic challenges, bucked expectations, and, ultimately, preserved their history. As evidenced by the collections they left behind, Americans during the Civil War believed that clothing was not merely a reflection of social class, gender, race, or rank.Military, political ideology or taste. Rather, both Northerners and Southerners realized that clothing - from the texture of the cloth to the design of the coat and the way it was made - had the power to influence people's way of life during the turmoil of war.In this engaging, photo-supported historical book, Sarah Jones Wicksell reveals the meanings clothing held for Americans during the Civil War. Wicksell contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the material culture of the Civil War, inviting readers to understand how war permeated everyday life by focusing on the intimate and profound material experiences that shaped how people moved through the world.